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praveen_khm
PostPosted: May 29, 2012 - 03:58 PM
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Hi,

I am designing a pcb and due to size constraints, planning to put a 5V regulator (78M05) right below an AVR microcontroller, well on the other side of the board. (All SMD's)

Can somebody suggest if this is a good idea? The regulator ofcourse heats up a little depending on the battery used, but does it affect the microcontroller on a long run?

Thanks,
Praveen

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DocJC
PostPosted: May 29, 2012 - 04:05 PM
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Moderator,

Perhaps this would do best in the General Electronics Section?

JC
 
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ka7ehk
PostPosted: May 29, 2012 - 05:11 PM
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Should not be an issue.

Jim

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praveen_khm
PostPosted: May 29, 2012 - 06:15 PM
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Thanks Jim. I am planning for a commercial board and just confirming so that it does not hit back huge.

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indianajones11
PostPosted: May 29, 2012 - 06:21 PM
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What voltage is the battery ? Why not just use a MCU that can run on a 3V battery and forget about regulators and waste thru heat ?

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mtaschl
PostPosted: May 29, 2012 - 06:59 PM
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Don't know which battery you speak about because the quiescent current of 78M05 is 4-6mA. So maybe you will never have a long run.

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ka7ehk
PostPosted: May 29, 2012 - 07:50 PM
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Of course, double-sided SMT boards are possible, but they are to be avoided when possible. Manufacturing is more costly. Trouble-shooting is harder. Repair hardly exists.

Jim

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jayjay1974
PostPosted: May 29, 2012 - 08:07 PM
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I don't see how repair and trouble shooting are really that much harder on a doubled side board.

What gets repaired on a component level these days? (Sub)boards are just swapped out and thrown away.
 
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ka7ehk
PostPosted: May 29, 2012 - 08:34 PM
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With parts on both sides, vias often get covered. That makes it harder to follow traces. Of course, thats also true for multi-layer.

Of course, its correct that boards are often not repaired.

Jim

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praveen_khm
PostPosted: May 30, 2012 - 10:08 AM
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Quote:
What voltage is the battery ? Why not just use a MCU that can run on a 3V battery and forget about regulators and waste thru heat ?


This may not be possible as the board need to support other sensors (running at 5V) powered by the same board.
Quote:

Of course, double-sided SMT boards are possible, but they are to be avoided when possible. Manufacturing is more costly. Trouble-shooting is harder. Repair hardly exists.


Manufacturing is fine for the effort. Troubleshooting? No. I do everything and when user gets it, he shouldn't bother more about it.

Quote:

Don't know which battery you speak about because the quiescent current of 78M05 is 4-6mA. So maybe you will never have a long run.


Ok. When I say long run, I meant throughout the life of the board. Yes that 4-6mA is huge, but did not find a better one.

Can somebody suggest a regulator which can meet a few of the following conditions?
1. Lower Quiescent current
2. Minimum of 500mA of output current (more the better)
3. Easily available and cheaper
4. Smaller footprints

For the records, the battery (7V-12V) current will be anywhere between 1A to 1.5A.

Thanks

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praveen_khm
PostPosted: May 30, 2012 - 11:05 AM
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Just searched for LDO's and found this "NCP1117". Does it serve the purpose?

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jayjay1974
PostPosted: May 30, 2012 - 12:14 PM
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It is not better in terms of quiescent current. How much current does it need to deliver? And what's the exact application? This quiescent current might not be important at all. It is if you have some board that has to run months or years on a battery, but not for a robot that only has to run for 30 minutes on a big battery and where motor current are dominant.
 
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valusoft
PostPosted: May 30, 2012 - 12:45 PM
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Praveen,

Your description has left me confused. You say the battery (7 to 12 volts) will be supplying between 1 and 1.5 amps. What does this have to do with the load on a 5 volt linear regulator?

You say the 5 volt regulator must supply 500 mA or more. Why so uncertain? Surely you know what your load is going to be?

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praveen_khm
PostPosted: May 30, 2012 - 01:27 PM
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Quote:
This quiescent current might not be important at all. It is if you have some board that has to run months or years on a battery, but not for a robot that only has to run for 30 minutes on a big battery and where motor current are dominant.


This explains it all. The board is designed such that it can support sensors and motors. It sure does not run for more than an hour, but just asking if saving a bit of current matters.
Thanks for your inputs.

Quote:
Your description has left me confused. You say the battery (7 to 12 volts) will be supplying between 1 and 1.5 amps. What does this have to do with the load on a 5 volt linear regulator?

Sorry to confuse you, but reading all the comments I am more confused. Embarassed I wrote this because someone asked for battery voltage details above.

Quote:

You say the 5 volt regulator must supply 500 mA or more. Why so uncertain? Surely you know what your load is going to be?


I am uncertain because I need something which is better and cheaper. Most regulators supply 500mA and few of them supply 1A.

If an end user decides to use a couple of servos, then it sure sucks most of the current (just in case). Since the board has an option of choosing current directly from the battery or from the regulated input, I am bit over cautious.

Reading all the inputs, I just guess that I go with my initial plan of using 78M05, without worrying much.

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jayjay1974
PostPosted: May 30, 2012 - 01:39 PM
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Remember that the regulator has to dissipate (12-5)*0.5=3.5W with a 12V input and a 0.5A load.

If you use the DPAK package, the junction will heat up to over 300C if you have no heatsink. Of course, the thermal protection will kick in at ~140C, so after a couple of seconds power is gone Wink

So you have to do some thermal analysis beforehand.
 
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praveen_khm
PostPosted: May 30, 2012 - 01:58 PM
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@jayjay1974 ,

Thanks a lot for your valuable suggestions.

This is the reason I raised my initial question about heating up AVR. The bottom part of my board has copper spread across which can act as heatsink, but now wondering if that is enough.

As mentioned, will have to do a prototype board for thermal analysis and then go ahead.

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praveen_khm
PostPosted: May 30, 2012 - 02:00 PM
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Just saw the Arduino Uno which looks like it uses 1117. I do not see any heat sink in there and input voltage is rated to be 7-12V. Will check the schematic once.

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jayjay1974
PostPosted: May 30, 2012 - 02:16 PM
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They use the PCB as a heatsink. That provides some cooling, enough for the application but not enough to use the maximum capabilities of the regulator.
 
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praveen_khm
PostPosted: May 30, 2012 - 03:16 PM
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Thanks a lot for your time and appreciate your help. With a bit of testing, let me see where I will end up.

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indianajones11
PostPosted: Jun 01, 2012 - 01:40 AM
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Jim, above, had a design that used the PCB as a heatsink and over time the heat lifted traces all over the board ( took about 1 yr. before it became a problem, IIRC ) . Your testing may not be good enough to catch this possibility. 3.5W or more has a good shot at doing that too.

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